Weaving together various observations and musings -- usually pertaining to aspects of Hong Kong (life) but sometimes beyond.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Hong Kong streets renaissance

One reason why I love Hong Kong: The high proportion -- and many types --of public transport on its streets(By the way, the traffic is less dense than usualin this photograph because it was taken on a weekend!)

Something else that I really like about Hong Kong:the profusion of colorful street markets andassociated pedestrian-friendly streetsthat are to be found there

As regular readers of this blog know full well, Hong Kong is a place I love. And while there is a part of me which wonders if one can truly say such a thing about a part of the world where one has yet to actually be a resident, another part of me feels certain that if one could, Hong Kong really would fit that bill for me.

At the same time, my love for things Hong Kong extends to what can appear to be the mundane: for instance, the very existence of its ultra-nifty Octopus Card, a great public transportation system, and the plentiful amount of street markets and other pedestrian-only or -friendly areas within that densely populated territory.

Even more surprisingly, its author was moved to note thatas recently as "in 2001, there were few streets or districts that were comfortable to walk in or engage with despite being known as a bustling shopping city. [But i]n the intervening [five years or so] the city has undergone a major transformation led by none other than the city's Transport Department."Consequently, "A city that once had almost no space for walking and where tourists, business travelers and residents dreaded its transportation system now has speedy and efficient mass transit and nice public spaces"; something which Learning from a Streets Renaissance in Hong Kong proceeded to show is really the case with wonderfully illustrative photographs along with well-reasoned points that I think many of you will find interesting reading. (Hence my deciding to try to draw the work to your attention in this post!)

Thanks re the photo compliment. To be honest, I'm not sure that these are particular nice photos. However, I put them in because I thought they would help illustrate the points made in my post (and the linked piece)! ;D

As for your new photo meme: Thanks for the invitation but, as I will disclose on the main part of the blog before too long, I'm not going to be able to commit much time to blogging for a while soon... :S

Aaah, yes, I see what you mean about the Asian Film Archive not having a venue of its own that's open to the public like the Hong Kong Film Archive has! Ah well...but some of the former's programs look interesting nonetheless. :)